I use to work out frequently in my high school years and my last three semesters in college. I lost all my muslces now due to the work life.

I know there are some brothers who stay fit and do it on a weekly basis. If you do, post up some basic beginner exercises that you recommend one can do at home in the morning or evening without any devices or weights. Basically push ups, sit ups, etc. Any variation of these and other uses of the typical “household item” like a chair or something. I don’t have the time or money to dedicate a monthly fee for a gym so I just need some basic schedules and exercise instructions.

24 Responses for "Brothers with Six-packs"

Well brother, you do go to college I assume. So you should be able to use their gym for free since your paying for it in your tuition. Anyways, have you ever heard of Bruce Lee? I would defiantly recommend you trying to look up his workout because he rarely used weights also Muhammad Ali said he never used weights in his workouts and look how big he is.

It can’t hurt to have some weights. Doesn’t have to be a full set, just some 20s and 30s or something, so you can do some bicep curls, shoulder press, etc.

The great thing about working out at home, with less or no weights, is that you’ll avoid the temptation trying to get huge, which the gym environment with all the equipment and grunting hunks tends to instill.

Just do like 50 sit ups in the morning and 50 in evening. and same do push ups.
takes all of 5 minutes you could also do some jogging on the spot for around 5 Minutes.
Shadow boxing in the mirror is a great way to keep fit.

@Abdullah – I’m looking for workouts that don’t use weights. I don’t have the time or money to spend on a gym yet. I’m trying to start up again. Just need basic exercises I can do at home to tone my body and start building back my muscles.

Asa brother, P90X all the way, all you need is a set of dumbbells or resistance rope, and a pull up bar home edition type, the one that fits over the door way,water and a towel. and your on your way.
believe me I know I’m on my third mouth and the results are excellent. one thing to keep in mind bring it 6 days a week and rest on the 7th. do your best and forget the rest.

Personally speaking I do have 6 pack abs so this is what i would recommend:
Do Push ups, Sit ups, Squats, and Lunges.
The Push ups will help you with your chest, arms shoulders mostly. I would suggest doing at least 100 per day but break them up in sets of 20 or 25.Change the style of the push ups from normal grip to also wide and close grip. The same for sit ups, 100 per day broken up by sets. Also change the style by doing full sit ups, crunches, bicycle crunches, and others as well. That goes for your upper body. If you chose to do lower body work outs, squats and lunges require no weights if you do enough of them. 100 squats to start would be good. You should add more reps as time goes on from say 100 of each to 110 and so on for all the exercises.
Hope this helped.. I used to do this before I joined a gym and it worked.

1) My Idea: You should invest 10 to 15 dollars to get pullup bar. For upper body training do variety of pushups(20-30 reps, 3 sets) and variety of pull/chin-ups (10-12 reps, 3 sets) 3x a week. You can increase weight by using a backpack with heavy textbooks. For legs you can do one legged squat. Other days do some form of cardio (running, playing sports, swimming etc.). You can get a Walker and use that to do Dips. For shoulders do vertical pushups against the wall. Focus on compound exercises.

salaams,
I picked up the iron gym workout bar last week for $29 at walmart and I’ve been using it consistently (surprisingly lol).

I think whats making it work for me is #1 I keep it in the home office where its VISIBLE, and #2 I love the look of it! Just seeing it motivates me to rip out 20 pushups and a few dips
u didnt mention it as an issue, but other readers: cut out the crappy foods! good food = good mood = strong willpower. ws.

i bought a pull-up bar and push-up stands. the push-up stands really let you do a variety of push-ups and help maintain your posture so you don’t throw out your back.

how do you stay motivated & consistent? i try to do my workout after salat. i’ll space 100 pushups into 20s throughout the day. i’ve recently started doing pushups in the bathroom using the bathtub edge and a step-stool.

if you base your exercise on things you do everyday, you’ll be less inclined to stop and you’ll have a daily reminder.

also, i (try to) use the stairs whenever possible. i do a lot of walking. i’m looking into craigslist to get a used exercise bike.

no parathas. once, my wife was in india for 2 months and all i ate were those frozen parathas and i gained 15 pounds. and you’re talking to a former skinny 125 pound indian kid.

ASa, Brother MR I agree Brother Monkeynurse, after pray is good. you have to see workout like second nature, start off lightly to build up your stamina, and since you have done it years before it should take you to long to get back to where you use to be. what motivates me is keeping in mind that Omar RAA was highly in view that all the Umma should be healthy and in shape wrestling or archery, horse riding or something in that arena . so that’s what keeps me going I see working out as part of the Sunnah so I feel like I should do it, I have been working out since I was 15 never gave it up because I felt it was a part of my deen. everyday to workout the heart, mind, body. if wasn’t that fact I probably would have lay off along time ago. one thing is for certain finding a partner to challenge you, will push you to superb limits, and at the end of your training your not tired your looking you partners face energize feeling like you can go another round.

Here are some killer push ups that will have you near to tears because of the burn ,

slow motion 3 in 1 push ups

the first set you place your hands wider than stander shoulders and chest and count to 4 while your going down slowly, than count 4 again while your going back up max reps.

2 set your place your hands or your bar in stander push up position and do max fast ones.

3 set place your hands or bar near your rib cage and count to 4 slow motion ones like you did in the fist set than do 4 fast ones max reps.

Now if you don’t feel like that’s a killer

you can do floor flays.

if you have a rug get a plastic pleat put in on the on the rug and put your lef hand on it like your about to do a slandered push up, but slide your hand outwards then bring it back to your slandered position, do 4 of them then do the same flay push with your right hand, max reps/

Increase your metabolism by whatever means necessary if you dont have it naturally, Fast metabolism = eat all the junkfood you want and still make Fabio look like the guy with a beer belly.

Okay kidding aside, all I do is just regular pushups and sit-ups. I dont bother going to the gym, but then again my motivation is simply to stay fit and not bulk up or anything. I can pop off 50 pushups straight out of bed first thing in the morning but one really easy trick I find is this:

After every fard prayer, do a number of push-ups / sit-ups or [whatever else] equal to five times the amount of rak’aat you just prayed.

If that’s all a piece of cake, then great. Do the same after the sunnah prayers too. So you’re doing 20 at Fajr, at least 40 to 50 at Zuhr, etc and at least 45 – 50 at Isha. Still easy? Make it six, seven, or ten times the amount of rak3aat you just prayed.

This way for guys who have problems with “finding the time” to do the workouts, or even finding the “motivation” its all right there, after EVERY prayer. Five times a day. You JUST CANT MISS IT.

Another tip for anyone reading (since I didn’t see it mentioned above.) In order to build your muscles in the first place you do need to work your muscles, by following the tips in many of the comments above. But that’s not necessarily going to get them showing unless you’re pretty thin (lean, with low body fat.)

Otherwise you’re going to need to do some cardio exercise also (which you can do for free: run. Run/walk/skip/hike/bike/etc.) This will burn a lot of excess calories which is necessary to really lose body fat. (Resistance training which builds muscles does burn calories and raises your metablism, but not enough to burn much body fat alone.)

And the other HALF at least of trying to improve muscle tone is proper nutrition. Working out will require plenty of good carbs (whole grains, e.g.,) and building muscle requires plenty of protein. And you should eat plenty of veggies to get lots of nutrients to keep your body healthy.